Lets Talk About Vehicle Mounted Awnings
- Thread starter Stephen
- Start date
Kiel
Formerly WJ ZUK
I got my overland journal yesterday with a nice review of awnings. In my eyes the best bang for the buck and the one I am looking at is the camping lab, but they didn't review the arb because they said it was almost identical except for the poles. The camping lab retails at 250 shipped. They did review quite a few more expensive options upwards of 7-800
Brian P
Misanthropic Fuel
- Location
- Taylorsville
I got my overland journal yesterday with a nice review of awnings. In my eyes the best bang for the buck and the one I am looking at is the camping lab, but they didn't review the arb because they said it was almost identical except for the poles. The camping lab retails at 250 shipped. They did review quite a few more expensive options upwards of 7-800
This is the reason, I tried to build my own, I was in to it about $80.00, I'm sure if I wanted to I could fix what is wrong with it and get a new tarp.
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
Interesting they would skip the ARB Awnings as noted they are not 100% the same. Their old model is the same as the current Camping Labs but with each series they fix issues had with the last.
Fwiw the ARB's retail at $165, $235 and $255 for the 1.25m, 2m and 2.5m respectively.
Tacoma
Et incurventur ante non
- Location
- far enough away
that's not bad pricing.
Kurt-Don't permanently mount it. My ARB awning can be removed from my truck with two clips in less than 30 seconds, deployed in under 2 minutes and stowed in a minute more than that
Seriously though, its very easy to make a bracket that is removable from the rig, the way mine is setup it can easily switch from side to side, if my rack was a top mounted vehicle, I could even have it off the back too.
I'd love to see that quick release system. I want to try an awning on the 4runner. You'll have to show me when I drop off my truck to your place (hopefully that is soon...)
R.
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
Damn metric system! This is america!
, metric is FAR superior than USCSBoth of us have our fingers crossed. :-\
Dominic
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Salt Lake City
Way ahead of you on that one!
What is your opinion on the strength of the poles? Would you leave it up through a storm?
After seeing the canopy system withstand the winds of last Saturday, i'd say the poles aren't the issue.. The stakes for the guide lines are the difference between success and failure. The best all around route to holding guide line taught would be tying them down to a 5 gallon water/fuel jug, spare tire, tree... Anything heavy that won't move when the wind whips up..
The wind pulled our stakes right out of the ground. Both on Steve's awning, and Kurt's canopy.
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
Stephen's is obviously different then the 'soft model' I pictured attached to my FJ40 but it was not wind friendly. As it uses tent like poles that flex the wind would move it all over the place. It wouldn't necessarily fall down but it would slap around and whip in the wind. The ARB awning on my Tacoma held up with zero issues in the wind this last weekend, not a peep of noise or movement. I woke up to the wind a couple of times in the night and honestly expected it to be all over the place but it proved me wrong
- Location
- Never Far From Nowhere
The poles are fine, quite stout in fact. As Jason mentioned, the stakes were iffy out at MMP, but the ground out there is mostly fill, so I can't say that it was an accurate representation of how well the guy lines would hold. We'll see how well it works down in the Arizona Strip this week.
The only real improvement that I would like to make to it is have a pole that goes across the front to add some rigidity there. Aside from that, it's a pretty nice little set up.
- Location
- Vehicular limbo
If you put a pole across the front, don't pin the awning to it...